Customer Reviews

99 Songs Of A Revolution

5 star:		(4)
4 star:		(3)
3 star:		(1)
2 star:		(1)
1 star:		(0)

 

 

This is one of those albums I have been waiting for since finding out about it. I have been a fan of streetlight since part of the group was with Catch 22. This album has some great stand out songs (Hell, Trobadour, Red Bouncing Ball, Such Great Heights, good songs that I enjoy (Punk Rock Girl, Linoleum, Me and Julio) and some that I weren't into (Tracks 1 and 3). Overall, that leads to a 4 star rating. This is the first time I would give this group a 4 out of 5 on anything. I think I prefer their original work more than the covers on this album. Please release original material Streetlight!

If you only like ska and the ilk, this album probably isn't for you. If you don't have a wide range of musical taste and have never been exposed to top 40 hits from eras gone by, this album isn't for you. Some of the music isn't even from top 40 charts, such as Mason Jennings, "Birds Flying Away". I like a wide range of music, but this song was completely obscure to me. Having said that, knowing that it was originally a folk song, I can't help but like Streetlight's take on it. They bring themselves into every song. Some of the songs sound like tributes, others have new spins and interpretations. I can see how some people are going to have mixed feelings about it. I enjoy the risk the album takes with songs that are almost standards in the punk world and even with Paul Simon's music. The could have easily done an album like Me First and the Gimme Gimmes (great band, awesome covers btw) where everyone in the world knows the songs and kick the tempo in, but they didn't. This isn't just a ska/punk band (or whatever you want to label Streetlight as)doing brash, fun, over-tempo covers.
If you are truly a Streetlight Manifesto fan and aren't entirely caught up in the punk/ska box ("I always crack a smile when I see your punk clothes, you try try but you'll never fit in..." 9mm and a 3 piece suit), this album gives you a peak through the keyhole and into the living room of the bands tastes, likes and influences.
This is a music lovers album, not just for ska fans.

This is one of the catchiest cover albums I own. Great choice of songs from a great band! I highly recommend Streetlight Manifesto, and if you haven't picked them up before this is a great starter album. If you're a fan of ska/punk, you won't be disappointed in this album!

I preordered this CD immediately after hearing it was available, so i had no idea how it would turn out. When the CD arrived it was on repeat for three days. Only knowing 3 of the covered songs before hand led me to getting to know the originals to see where the inspiration came from. Now i own the discography of Mason Jennings, the one Postal Service album, a few Radiohead, and i'M in the process of getting more from these recommendations. Having Tomas's linear notes and reasons for wanting to play theses songs definitely makes the connection between the original and the covers, as you can almost feel his passion and love for the songs. i'Ve tried to push this album upon others, but it's just not for some. For me though, i can't get enough.

After listening to this album a few times now, I'm very pleased with my purchase. Reading some of the reviews, I was slightly hesitant to buy but I've enjoyed everything else from SM so I picked it up. And I'm glad I did.

The production is very good. One issue I have with most ska bands is sloppy musicianship and bad recording engineers. Not the case here; This set features tight horns, great guitar and bass, and well executed drums/percussion. The quality of the MP3 is crisp and the mix is great.

The songs are arranged nicely and are great, unique covers done in the classic Streetlight way.

If you're a fan of ska or this band, buy it. You won't be disappointed.

I waited and waited for this CD from my most fave band ever to finally come out, mainly because of the HELL and LINOLEUM covers.. I gotta say, i am a tad let down by this one guys.. I mean, some of the covers are good like HEll, Linoleum, Red Rubber Ball and Me and Julio down by the school yard.. but the rest are kinda.... strange.. Trubador? Skyscraper? some of these songs are just so way far out in left field, they should have never been dug out of the mothballs by any band.. c'mon Thomas... lets go back to the originals...please? SLM is great but this disk is about as lack luster as the fender of my 1971 chevy pick-up. And another thing... what revolution are these songs from? Must be a rather boring one...lol
I wanna see another cd like you used to make.. no more covers please..

I have been a big fan of Streetlight Manifesto, so I am certainly biased toward them. This being said, I couldn't help but dislike tracks 2 and 3 for some reason (Hell and Just), I felt they didn't sound quite right as cover songs done by Streetlight. Skyscraper and Punk Rock Girl were "ok" covers, but nothing really great. The rest of the album was excellent, and I must recommend it for any Streetlight fan as those that love Streetlight would more then likely love to add this to their collection, those not as familiar with Streetlight may want to shy away if this is the first Album of theirs you are interested in, try Everything Went Numb or Somewhere in the Between first instead. I would give the album 3.5 / 5 but I don't think that's possible here.

ahhh, where to begin. First of all I love streetlight manifesto and everything they have done so far, I was really excited to here they were doing a HUGE album of music that was influential to them with other bands. So we waited... and waited, and waited until it was finally released. This cd is volume I and has 11 songs so naturally we are to assume there will be 8 more volumes. The songs are pretty excellent to me, but alas i dont know many of the songs they covered. Quality of the cd and the recording is great, the whole band played skillfully as usual buttttt, it took them like 3 or 4 years to put out this volume and its a total time of just under 34 minutes. This is the reason i gave it a 4 out of 5 stars. Also, if it took them this long to put out one volume and they have 8 more, i think i may be dead of old age before the last one comes out! Any how, other than being really short i very much enjoyed the album and is most defintely worth your money if your a streetlight fan :D

The good:

The quality of this album, just as with everything Streetlight does is amazing. Aside from a relatively weak performance on "Just," the instrumentals are extraordinary. As always, I'm sure there are some who dislike Kalnoky's voice, but this is a completely separate issue. Personally, I love Streetlight and all of their past projects.

Birds Flying Away and The Troubador are the highlights of this album, bringing an insight into the band's more obscure influences. In addition, the covers of Linoleum and Skyscraper are interesting interpretations of the originals.

The bad:

To put it bluntly, given that this album has taken two years to be released, one would expect more than 30 minutes of cover songs. Also, a little more discretion in song choices would help the album. That is, if they're going to cover Punk Rock Girl, Me and Julio and Such Great Heights, then they might as well cover Stairway to Heaven, Freebird, Brown Eyed Girl and Take On Me. Covering such songs is completely cliche and unoriginal.

The covers of Just and Red Rubber Ball simply feel uninspired. I can't say that there's much technically wrong with these songs, but they just feel like they were thrown in to flesh out the "album."

Lastly, they actually covered BOTAR? Really? The inclusion of this song is simply beyond my comprehension. The difference between the Streetlight version and the BOTAR version is so slight that it's just idiotic to make such a cover.

Honestly, this album feels like they're just releasing something to appease their contract with Victory, rather than making something at all original or interesting. It feels too much like they're playing what their fans will like, rather than making a good compilation.

If you want a good collection of cover songs, there is a collection of songs from a live Dustin Kensrue solo performance that can be found on bittorent (I have not seen it available by any other means, as it is likely bootleg). In these songs, the frontman of a post-hardcore band (Thrice) promotes his indie-folk side project, and covers bands from Bruce Springstein to U2 to Pedro the Lion to Sinead O'Connor to Bob Marley and even Thrice (which is different enough to be interesting). It's also important to note that this compilation has 30 songs, and so is obviously not just some 30 minute cocktease.

Overall:

This cover album is not that bad, but it is definitely not very good either. I'm a fan of Streetlight, but this is just a weak cover album, and pales in comparison to even the lesser Me First and the Gimme Gimmes albums, both in substance and in style.

I'm hoping that the other 88 songs of revolution are better, and would love if Dan Potthast is one of the "unnamed artists" to be putting out a later installment.